Until We Meet Again
by Catheryne
Summary: A legend of an old house calls to Chloe. How can Lex make sure that the past doesn't take his wife away? *COMPLETE*
1. Default Chapter

Until We Meet Again  
  
Part 1  
  
"All of my life I yearned to touch him. From afar, my eyes would seek his and when they do find those gray pools of light my heart would skip a beat or two. Inside my breast I would feel the leap of flame that would thread through my veins.  
  
"On the eve of my eighteenth birthday, at the feast that my father had thrown in my honor, his warm hand closed around my waist. It was the first time I felt his lips on my skin. Despite the fact that my father and my best friend would have killed him if they saw us then, I threw caution into the wind and responded with fierce passion.  
  
"Had I known that he would leave me to the mercy of the world, I do not know if I would have offered myself so openly. But I trusted in my lover and in return he abandoned me with his child. To this day, I wait. And it seems I wait in vain."  
  
Chloe closed the old leather bound book and sighed. She had almost finished Chloe Sheridan's diary. When she had spotted it in the antique shop, she immediately bought it. It was not merely because the woman was her namesake. It was the intrigue that surrounded the woman herself. She and her mysterious lover were the talk of the town until the meteor shower. The events naturally distracted the people from the old scandal. Still, no matter how gripping the story was, it still strained her vision. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the seat. She felt strong fingers push against her temples carefully, soothingly. She murmured a pleased sound.  
  
"I told you not to read in the car, Chloe."  
  
She peeked at her husband, assessing his somber mood before responding. "I couldn't put it down, Lex. You know how I am about the mysteries of this town."  
  
Lex shook his head and turned on the road just at the outskirts of Smallville. "There is nothing mysterious about that journal."  
  
"It was written by the woman who lived in the Sheridan house last. You do know that abandoned Colonial off the Granville Farm?"  
  
Lex did know the place. They have driven by the house several times during the last few days in their attempt to look for a smaller place to move into. With Chloe expecting their first baby in a few months, they needed to buy a place of their own-one that Lionel Luthor would not feel as comfortable barging in. While Lex had suggested that they remain in his penthouse in Metropolis, Chloe insisted that she wanted a place in Smallville, where they could raise a child relatively free from the abnormalities of being a Luthor baby.  
  
"Chloe, there is no mystery. She was seduced, knocked up, then left. The guy probably skipped town bursting with excitement because he got lucky with the girl everybody protected from him."  
  
Chloe rifled through the pages and read out loud, "His hand against my breast was brief and gentle. Before he exposed more of my skin, he met my eyes and asked a silent question. I reached for his wrist and led his palm to my skin, just below my navel, where a warm feeling stirred that I have no name for. He knelt before me and laid his lips there. My breath caught the moment he looked up at me and mouthed his thanks." She closed the book decisively and concluded, "The man was obviously in love with her. He could not have just left her."  
  
"That was written in her point of view, Chloe," Lex reasoned. "She would not have written down that the man was pretending to be enamored of her to get inside her pants."  
  
Chloe rolled her eyes at the utter lack of romance in Lex's voice. "You obviously are a cynic, Lex."  
  
"I'm just pointing to the logical answers here." Lex drove by the old Sheridan house again. He glanced at his wife and saw the longing look she threw at it. She had been giving the house those glances that should be reserved only for him. He figured that he should just get this over with. Lex parked the car at the driveway and at Chloe's excited squeal, he turned and informed her, "This is not the house we were trying to find. But if you want it when we've toured it, I'll sign the papers."  
  
Chloe clapped her hands and threw her arms around her husband. "Oh, thank you thank you! You are adorable!" She dropped a kiss on his nose.  
  
Lex smirked. There was no bigger ego boost for him than to make his wife happy. He climbed out of the car and walked over to Chloe's side to open the door for her. By the time he rounded the hood of the car, Chloe was already walking over to him. He shook his head.  
  
They made their way to the front door when Chloe shivered. He looked down at his wife, because the day was warm. "Are you okay?" His hand immediately rose to her forehead to check her temperature, an action he did not even know the purpose of until he accepted that he was in love.  
  
Chloe closed her hand over his and pulled it down to their side. "I'm fine, Lex. It's just goosebumps. I am so hyped that you finally agreed to look at the house!"  
  
He threw an arm over her shoulders and drew her close. He did not know why it took him so long to finally just stop here so she can look at the house she obviously wanted. It was just that every time they would drive by here, he had negative vibrations from the place. He was a man of science, and vibrations and feelings should not mean so much to him. But the odd heaviness in his heart when they passed by the Sheridan mansion was so different that he trusted it. But if viewing the house made Chloe happy, then they would view it.  
  
The caretaker of the house, an aging man in a suit that had seen better days, admitted them with a scrutinizing eye. Lex was aware of the condition of the place. Although of flawless architecture and design, the house had not been maintained properly over the decades. After Chloe Sheridan passed away, nobody had lived in the house for longer than a month due to restless spirits, as the Ledger once reported the last owner saying. That was why the caretaker was not too used to people still interested in renting it out or purchasing it. Because Chloe and Lex were pragmatic-well Lex at least, Chloe was here because she was interested in the house and the ghosts that came with it-they did not mind the rumors surrounding the place.  
  
They were taken on a tour of the living room, the kitchen and the various libraries and studies. There were music rooms and tea rooms. It was characteristic of the era in which it was inhabited in. Chloe glanced at the wide staircase and asked the old man, "May we see the bedrooms? Perhaps you can show us the master bedroom. Or Ms Chloe's," she suggested.  
  
The man looked at them in horror before shaking his head. "I only remain on the first level, madam. I cannot go upstairs. If you buy the place, you may wander wherever you wish."  
  
"Nice tour," Lex muttered to his wife. Chloe elbowed him on the ribs. He groaned at the gleam in her eye. The preposterous reasoning only served to intrigue her even more. "Chloe-"  
  
She turned around and faced him, and Lex was afraid of the brightness of her cheeks. She was positively bursting with excitement. "I want it," she stated.  
  
"It's a fixer-upper!" he exclaimed in disbelief. They had seen better homes than this. There were dozens of places that they could live in.  
  
"I want it," she said again. "I feel so at home in here!"  
  
All his instincts screamed at him not to give into her. But she looked so hopeful and adorable as she batted her lashes in an effort to sway him.  
  
"I'll take care of all the construction and wallpaper and any little detail," she promised. "Please, I don't ask for a lot of things. Let me choose where we'll raise our family."  
  
That sealed the deal for him. She was right. If anything, Chloe gave and never took. If this would make her happy, then who was he to say no? He leaned down and placed a kiss on her brow. "Let me see the contract," he told the caretaker.  
  
The caretaker left them to get the sample from his bedroom. While they waited, Chloe stepped into Lex's embrace and told him about how she would fix the place up to make it habitable. Lex did not pay attention to her decisions about the paint and polish, the paintings and sculptures she would look for to complete the atmosphere. He merely allowed himself to be lulled by the sound of her voice and the feel of her body in his arms. His brain hummed at the fact that he had given his wife something she wanted.  
  
Lex took the contract when the man arrived to hand him the envelope. "I'll go over this at home and then I'll get back to you regarding my decision but," Lex looked down at his smiling wife, "it's most likely affirmative. We will discuss the details of the move when we meet." He handed the man his card. "I'm Lex Luthor and this is my wife Chloe. You will see more of us."  
  
Suddenly, the man drew his hand back and snatched the contract rudely from Lex's hands. "Alexander?"  
  
"Alexander Luthor. That's right."  
  
The man stepped back and shook his head. "I'm sorry but you cannot purchase this place. It is off the market."  
  
Lex growled in his throat. The man did not realize the stupidity of refusing a sale just because of who he was. The house was almost garbage and Lex was willing to pay their price because of the illogical way that his wife had taken to the place. "What do you mean off the market? I want to talk to whoever owns this."  
  
"The federal bank owns it now. But you cannot buy it," the man said. "No, you cannot live here. And I suggest you two not return here again."  
  
They were ushered out of the house, and the door shut before them. Lex cursed. They were turned away because of who he was. He was certain of that. Lex knocked loudly on the door but the man did not answer it. He turned to apologize to his wife. Lex found Chloe staring up at the third floor window. He said her name once but she did not look at him. "Chloe," he said again. Chloe's gaze remained fixed on the window.  
  
Slowly, he turned his head to follow her gaze. Lex's skin crawled at the sight of his Chloe standing up there looking down at him, brushing her shoulder length hair repeatedly. He searched the woman's face for any sign of malice or humor. The woman in the window looked exactly like his wife, but Chloe was standing there right beside him, also looking up. All he saw was the expressionless eyes looking at him.  
  
Lex looked at Chloe and touched her arm. Her skin felt cold. All the legends about the old house returned to him, and he remembered the journal that Chloe had been so entranced about. Coupled with Chloe's intense sense of home in the old Colonial, Lex's brain shuttered everything else except the need to take his wife away from here.  
  
He closed his hand over her clammy one and dragged her away from the house. She was in a trance. Chloe did not put up a fight when he sat her on the passenger seat and slammed the door closed. Lex ran to the driver's side and got in. He inserted the key into the ignition and started the car. Lex slammed his foot on the gas pedal, squealing out of the Sheridan house driveway. He turned to look at Chloe, expecting her to be shaking her head and wondering what mirage it was that she had seen.  
  
Chloe was still looking back at the third floor window of the old Colonial. 


	2. Part 2

Part 2  
  
The ornate Chinese knocker dug into her scalp. She turned her head to ease the pressure, but he grasped her chin with his fingers and turned her head back to face him. With his other hand, he grasped at her skirts, pushing it up to her waist as he parted her thighs with his knee.  
  
Chloe bit her lip as she forced herself not to respond to his hip digging between her legs. His stormy eyes blazed down at hers before his mouth met hers, pressing the inside of her lips against her teeth. She moaned at the back of her throat.  
  
She freed her mouth and tried to push against his chest. At that same moment, she felt him push inside her, and Chloe released a strangled cry. "You have to stop this," she gasped. He thrust inside her, hitting places that he used to reach with gentle movements inside her. Now, he was in a fury. He was quick and his hips slammed into her more powerfully than before. "Don't."  
  
His teeth grazed her cheek before he buried his nose in her head, breathing in the scent of strawberries in her hair. "Is that you talking," he hissed, "or is it your fiancé, Chloe?"  
  
"Stop." She shut her eyes tightly when he moved rapidly inside her, driving her to the edge. "I told you. We. Have. To. Stop." Behind her eyelids she could see stars bursting in the darkness, and no matter how much she tried to keep it in, the keening wail escaped from her breast. She sagged against him, kept upright by his body still moving in her and the door behind her. Chloe clutched his shoulders, massaging his nape slowly while his throat worked. Sweat dripped from his forehead and rolled down to her chest, rolling to her nipple. Chloe swallowed heavily and sucked in her breath when she felt him stiffen. He threw back his head and groaned, the hot flood of his seed inside her pushing her off the edge again.  
  
"I love you so much," he whispered against her skin. His tongue flicked the moisture from her breast. "Tell me you won't allow your father or Clark to control your destiny." His stormy gray eyes pleaded with her. "Promise me."  
  
"I can't." When she weakly pushed on his chest again, he released her. Chloe slid down the door to the servants' entrance. "We're not going to be together. We should never have been together."  
  
"Why?" he demanded. "Because you live in this house and I am nothing?"  
  
"You are not nothing!" she protested immediately, looking up at him from her position on the grass. "I would not have fallen in love with you if you had been nothing."  
  
He knelt in front of her and picked up her hand, bringing it to his lips. He closed his eyes and asked, "Then why can't we be together?"  
  
Chloe shook her head. "I've been promised to Clark long before I met you. I was supposed to fall in love with him a few years into the marriage. How was I to know that love would come with him, not for him, but in the guise of his own manager?"  
  
"If I were willing to put my life and my career at stake, will you leave with me?"  
  
Her lips parted in surprise, and she held his face with both of her hands. "Clark's father hired you because you never leave a plantation until it prospers," she reminded him. "Your reputation precedes you. You cannot ruin your career."  
  
"For you, I will raze their farmland and salt its earth so that no corn or rice or wheat will grow-not even weed."  
  
Chloe shivered at the promise in his words. He would do it. He would ruin her fiancé if she asked him to. She stared deep into his eyes and shook her head, smiling. "You don't need to do that," she assured him.  
  
"Will you come with me then?" he asked. "I will speak with Clark and inform him of my plan. If you wish to break your engagement with him before we leave, do so. But tomorrow I will come and I expect you to be prepared."  
  
"I will not have everything that I had here," she said. "I would not have all that I would have had as Clark's wife-" He could not promise him that he would give her the luxury she had been used to, the riches she deserved. For one short moment, he thought about taking back his invitation. But Chloe tugged at his hand and pulled him to her, placing a tender kiss on his lips, "But you, Alexander, will give me the world."  
  
~~  
  
His tires screeched into a halt right at the bottom of the steps leading up to the old house. Lex turned the motor off and looked up at the dark windows of the old house. He stopped on the first step when he noticed that all of the glass windows have been covered with cloth or newspapers taped together except for one. It was the third floor window where he had seen the woman just yesterday. There was nothing there.  
  
He shook off the cold air that started to envelop him. Lex rang the doorbell that was obviously a modern addition to the house. He had been searching for his wife for hours, looking for her at her father's, at the Kents', at the Talon. Finding her nowhere, he had tried calling her cellphone but it was out of reach. Finally, the caretaker of the house called him and informed him that his wife was there viewing the house despite the fact that she had been told over and over that the house was no longer for sale.  
  
Very few things scared Lex Luthor, and last night did. When they arrived back at the house, his wife was catatonic. It took him a full two hours to bring her back. She had drawn a blank to the day, with no knowledge of where they had been and what they did. He had been glad then. At least Chloe would not be possessed with the need to find out more about the house if she did not remember it. Hearing that she had made her way back there sent fear clawing at his heart.  
  
The door to the mansion swung open. Lex stepped in and turned to thank the caretaker, but found no one standing by the door. He shrugged and supposed that the man had left him to his own devices. Lex walked around and searched the various rooms for his wife. "Chloe," he called gently, not wanting to sound afraid or mad. "Honey, we need to go."  
  
The rooms that they had been shown to were empty. Lex looked up the wide staircase. They had not been allowed to see the upper levels yesterday. If Chloe remembered viewing the house and not having been taken upstairs, that would be her first destination. Not even bothering to inform the caretaker, he climbed up the stairs, ignoring the crawling fingers on his arms.  
  
Every step echoed into the large empty house. He pushed open the first door on the second floor, hearing it creak on the hinges. There was a long corridor that revealed several more doors. Lex looked at the next level of steps, knowing deep down that he would not find Chloe on the second floor. Allowing his instincts to lead him, Lex climbed the stairs.  
  
He reached the dusky corridor. He almost chuckled at the sight of cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and portraits on the wall. It was the very stereotype of old, abandoned houses. The experience was almost satirical until the fourth door opened silently by itself. Lex wanted to turn and leave the house, return to the outside world where logic ruled and things were sane, where doors stayed closed until a human hand turns the knob. Seeing the journal that Chloe had been carrying for a few days now on the floor drove him forward.  
  
Lex stopped at the doorway, looking inside the empty room. "Chloe, are you in here?" He saw the glass window, uncovered, and realized that this was the room that he had looked at the day before. He walked inside and looked around. The room was bare and his wife was not there.  
  
The fragrant smell of strawberries filled the air. Lex stepped back until his back hit the door that he did not remember even closing. He turned around and saw the dilapidated door slowly turn new and solid. From the bottom, white paint climbed the wood until the door was as good as new. His head whipped back to see the bedroom. Lex swallowed when he saw the light yellow lace curtains hanging on the windows. In the middle of the room, a canopy bed was freshly made with flower-patterned sheets. There was a vanity dresser with an oval mirror right across the bed.  
  
Lex's eyes widened when he saw another door open and Chloe step out. He reached out and closed his hand over her wrist, pulling her to the door leading to the corridor. She snatched her arm away and rubbed the skin with her hand. "Chloe, we have to go!"  
  
"I waited for you!" she spat out.  
  
Lex's brows furrowed at the angry fire in her eyes. They had not fought for months. There had been no cause for a disagreement. "Chloe, I didn't know you went here. Now let's go. It's either I'm seeing things or-"  
  
His words were muffled when she slammed her mouth on his. Her hands frantically pulled his shirt out of his pants. She clawed at his belt until his pants fell on the floor. Suddenly, he was filled with rage that he did not understand. Lex grabbed her arm and threw her on the bed. His fingers dug into her hair and he pulled her head back. She gasped harshly when she felt him tear her panties away. "You are so used to that," she murmured.  
  
Lex grunted an answer. He grabbed her thighs and pushed them apart, keeping them apart with a bruising grip. "You lied to me!" he found himself accusing her. "You played me for a fool!"  
  
"I never did anything for you to do what you did to me!" she cried. She beat at his back, needing him off of her. When he sank inside her heat, the fists turned into sharp fingernails digging into his back. "I will hate you for eternity, Alexander," she moaned, her hips pushing against him, driving him deeper inside her.  
  
"I hate you as much as I loved you," he returned, angling his thrust to drive her off the cliff. And then he too was spiraling down a bottomless pit, the darkness crowding in his vision until he only wanted to stop breathing to end the pain.  
  
When Lex woke up, his head was pounding and his entire body ached. He blinked and saw the moon through the glass window. He realized that he was lying on top of his wife. Lex shifted to take his weight off of her. When he fell on his back, he registered that they had been sleeping all along on the bare and dusty floor. The unpleasant surprise was to find that both he and Chloe were naked.  
  
His eyes fell to her spread legs. He saw the purpling bruise in the shape of his hands on her inner thighs. Lex cringed in horror at the sight of his wife's cut lip, where blood even now oozed. He reached out and brushed his fingers at the bite marks on her breasts.  
  
"Chloe," he whispered. She did not stir. He took her into his arms and shook her gently away. "Chloe," he repeated. This time, her eyes fluttered open and Lex sighed in relief. "Sweetheart, please look at me."  
  
Her gaze wandered around the empty room until it found his. She touched his cheek and frowned. "You have a scratch, Lex. What happened?"  
  
He smiled down at her. "That's nothing. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Like I've been run over by a truck." She groaned. "And I am exhausted, like I'm two hundred years old! Lex, I want to sleep."  
  
He swallowed again and nodded his head. "Chloe, I'm going to take you home now."  
  
"Are we naked?" she whispered when their lack of clothing finally registered in her brain. She felt the soreness between her thighs, and her palm automatically reached for the gentle swell of her belly. "Is the baby okay?" she asked fearfully.  
  
Lex laid his forehead on hers. "We'll go to the doctor in the morning. But right now, Chloe, please let me take you home."  
  
She wanted to cry, because whatever had happened, she knew it had consequences to her marriage. Chloe nodded. "Take me home, Lex." 


	3. end

Part 3  
  
They have both decided that for the safety of the child and for the protection of their marriage, she was not to go to the old house again. Yet the drive that propelled her into her small car, the force that led her hands to steer to the old gravel path, was beyond any of her control. Chloe found herself to be directed by a trance-like state where she only heard words that she had read before, in Chloe Sheridan's hand. The dead woman whispered into her ear, "I fear that without him, I will no longer be able to live. I do not need to breathe."  
  
Chloe tried to tightly shut her eyes, but an intangible hand forced her chin up, until she was straight right at the only uncovered window at the third floor. If she were in control, she might have decided to still go up. She would not allow a phantom to ruin her perfect life. She had a husband who adored her and a child on the way. A woman who took her own life because the man she loved did not return her affections and abandoned her was sympathetic, but not when she threatened the Luthor family's happiness.  
  
She raised her hand to reach for the knocker. Again, the breeze teased her ears. Chloe turned the knob and easily swung the door open. She took a deep breath and looked up at the glossy clean steps of the stairs. She looked around the empty path. There was no evidence of change on the first floor. The change began at the first step of the stairs, mocking her, calling her to come up.  
  
Silently, she made her way up. With each step she took, the colder she became. She shivered by the time she was halfway up, when she rounded the bend at the second floor. Although having come here only once before, the way to the bedroom where Lex found her only yesterday was already etched in her mind.  
  
"Chloe," she called down the corridor. She was no longer surprised when the door she remembered stepping into creaked. Beyond that memory from yesterday, she did not recall anything after until she woke in Lex's arms, sated, bruised. "Please, Chloe," she whispered as she walked into the room, "leave my mind alone."  
  
Her eyes widened when she heard a sniffling sound, and then a pathetic racking sob. Chloe's eyes darted around the room, expecting to see the ghost standing right behind her. Her skin crawled. She was alone in the room.  
  
The moment she smelled strawberries, she closed her eyes. It was a familiar sensation, to have the fragrance soothe your rattled brain. Chloe swallowed heavily, feeling again his angry hands ripping at her clothes, gripping her wrists tightly over her head so she would not be able to push him off. While he moved inside her quickly, and bit at the pulse in her throat, the scent of strawberries filled her.  
  
At the back of her mind, the image of a man sitting beside her as they rested under a large shady tree, in a field of corn, handed her a small box wrapped in thin Chinese paper. "Alexander, you shouldn't have bothered," she found herself mouthing into the still air.  
  
"I never gave you a present. I do not have money like Clark, and I am sure that his gift is far better. But I will not allow that to deter me from giving you a remembrance of me."  
  
Chloe saw herself tearing at the wrapped and unveiling a small bottle. She had raised it up and sniffed the liquid. "It's wonderful. I love it. It is far better than Clark's gift."  
  
"It's bath oil," he had informed her with a glint in his eye. "It will not compare to those earrings, Chloe."  
  
Her hands had flown to her ears, where the tiny diamonds shone. They were gifts from Clark's parents, family heirloom meant to be passed from bride to bride. She had not wanted to wear them but her mother had insisted on the courtesy of showing appreciation. "You've seen me wear his gifts. He will never see me wear yours, wearing only yours."  
  
"He will come back to me. Do you not see how much he loved me? He will come back. I know that he will!"  
  
Chloe's eyes flew open at the sound of that voice. She found herself looking into the mirror, at a young woman who bore an amazing resemblance to her. "Chloe Sheridan" she whispered.  
  
The woman in the mirror looked at her, pleading. She extended her hand, trying to reach outside. "Please help me," the woman begged.  
  
"Chloe, you have to forget about him. It's long past and you need your rest."  
  
"He left me," the ghost said. "But he loved me. How could he leave me?"  
  
Chloe saw the woman rest her palm on the mirror. She stepped closer and reached for the reflection. "Please rest." She laid her palm against the cold surface of hers.  
  
~~  
  
He had been eager to come home to his wife to show her all that he had researched about the old house. Lex had spent the night and the entire afternoon looking up old pictures, writings, talking to historians, doing everything so that he would find out all there was about the threat to their life. But when he arrived home, he was told by the maid that Mrs Luthor had left in her car earlier, seeming disturbed and ignoring everyone who tried to talk to her.  
  
He had known where his wife would head. Again, breaking all the promises he made himself that he would never speed again, Lex tore through the town and stopped in front of the cursed house within minutes. He did not bother to knock. He kicked open the door and headed for the stairs.  
  
"Where are you going?" the old man demanded, rushing out to meet him.  
  
"I am getting my wife and we are leaving this place forever."  
  
The old man appeared agitated. He shook his head. "Your wife headed up to Miss Chloe's room. Miss Chloe has her now. You must leave and save yourself from her wrath."  
  
"I will not be leaving without my wife. This house should be torn down." Lex moved to climb the stairs, but the man gripped his arm.  
  
"No, no. The mistress has taken your wife. You cannot get her back. Miss Chloe will not rest until Master Alexander returns to her."  
  
"A dead man cannot return."  
  
"But you can," the man told him cryptically. "Her hatred has grown over the time her spirit waited here. Do not put yourself on the path of destruction. She will want to take her revenge on you because you are too much like Master Alexander."  
  
Lex shook the man's hand off angrily. He ran up the stairs and towards the bedroom. He steeled himself for what he would see. When he opened the door, he found the same kept and feminine room that had been there before. Chloe sat at the center of the bed, with her journal in hand, writing. She perked when she saw him enter. "Alexander! You came back."  
  
"I am not Alexander," he said slowly. That was his wife lying there. "Chloe, please let my wife go."  
  
The bright eyes suddenly turned to steal. Her lip curled in hatred. "Do not lie to me just because you do not love me anymore. If you needed to leave me, you could have told me. But you made me wait for you," she spat out. "It was cold and dark and I abhor you with every fiber of my being."  
  
Calculating his movements, Lex walked in and sat beside her on the bed. He reached out and rested his hand on her stomach, sighing in relief when he felt their child kicking inside her, unaffected by the horror affecting its mother. "You do not hate Alexander," he told her slowly. "If you did, you would have left this house long ago. You're tired, Chloe. If you hated him, you would not be waiting here."  
  
"You know nothing," she said quietly. "Do not pretend that you know how it feels to lose your heart."  
  
He nodded in understanding. "I do know. Every second that you keep my wife from me, Chloe, I lose a piece of my heart. Please give her back. It hurts that what you had with Alexander ended in tragedy, but you had your chance to live your life. Will you let us live ours?"  
  
Chloe shook her head. Lex's heart fell. He tried to think of ways to forcefully drive the spirit out. "I cannot. I swore that I would not leave until I know how I was fooled, why Alexander never returned like he promised. I cannot rest until I know exactly what it was that I did wrong."  
  
Lex closed his hand around hers. "Chloe, Alexander returned. But you've closed yourself off to the world that you're supposed to be in, focusing instead here, that you never saw him."  
  
Her tears glittered in her eyes. She stared up at him in confusion. "What are you saying? I have been looking out that window for two hundred years. Alexander did not return."  
  
He nodded towards the mirror across from them. Chloe looked up and furrowed her brows. His hand tightened around hers. "Look closer."  
  
Her lips parted when images formed in the mirror. Her tears fell unheeded down her cheeks. "Alex," she whispered. Lex tightened his jaw when the body of his wife stumbled out of the bed and rushed in front of the mirror. He saw himself, although in antiquated clothes and with thick black hair. Alexander smiled softly from his place there and he held up a tiny bundle in his arms. "Baby!" Her hands rose to the swell of her stomach.  
  
Even though she would probably be wrapped up in her own world, he decided to explain what he had found out. "When you informed Clark that you would not go through with the wedding, and Alexander resigned from his post, Clark put two and two together. He had his plant manager killed on his way here."  
  
Alexander laid his palm on the mirror, urging her to come with him. "I have been waiting here for you since that night. I have been beside you all the time, love. But you never saw me. You were too wrapped up in that world. But the one where we should be is lovelier, Chloe. I have not been anywhere else I would rather be, except in your arms."  
  
Chloe turned to Lex. "I'm sorry." Lex nodded. She laid her palm on his and the images in the mirror vanished. Lex rushed forward the moment Chloe's body went slack. He caught her up in his arms and walked over to the bed to lie her down. Suddenly, the entire room returned to its dilapidated and empty state.  
  
He walked down the stairs with his wife in his arms. A few feet away from the door, she stirred and fluttered her lashes. "Chloe."  
  
"Lex, I couldn't stop myself. I'm so sorry."  
  
"Shhh. It's okay. I know." He looked around one last time at the Sheridan house. "I'll tell you what. I will hire hundreds of men to build us a palace, but you have to promise that we will never step foot or even lay eyes on this place again. This is Alexander's and Chloe's heaven. We'll build our own somewhere else."  
  
He stepped out into the light and headed for the car. He would have someone else pick up Chloe's convertible later. Lex deposited her into the passenger seat and briskly walked over to get into the driver's. He smiled gently at her and allowed her to pull him for a slow, lingering kiss. "Is this destiny?" she asked softly.  
  
Lex started the engine. And then, Chloe and Lex heard the cooing of a baby and male laughter, followed by a feminine giggle, coming from the upper levels of the house. For the last time, Chloe peered out her window and looked up. There she saw the shadowed figures of the couple watching them leave their home.  
  
"I don't know about destiny," Lex told her as he maneuvered the car out the driveway and onto the main room. "But if you ask me about love, I know all about it now."  
  
fin 


End file.
